Can the Law Help Us Overcome Sin?

Can the Law Help Us Overcome Sin?
By Let Us Reason Ministries

Rom.6:3-4 tells us the way God gets rid of sin in the life of a believer is he gets rid of the sinner, by having us die to self. Our old nature is considered dead and we practice the new nature (walking in it). If you try to overcome sin in your life by trying to deal with the sin it won't work. The only way you get victory over the sin is not by concentrating on the sin, but by concentrating on our relationship with Christ and his death and resurrection you have the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome. If your concentrating on the problem your going back under the law, because the law points out what you are doing wrong. thou shalt not, but thou shalt not makes you want to do it. He needs to get rid of the sinner. Be holy as I am holy, by being in Jesus he takes your sin and gives you his righteousness, its a new positional standing and he works into us a change in our nature. Not by obedience to the law, the law teaches us we are fallen. The law was never designed to give salvation. The law separated the Hebrew people. Today the Holy Spirit separates us and as we yield to Him He fills our life. Good works are like fig leaves, they can cover up our sin but never eliminate it. Saving faith produces trust in Jesus as one's Savior. The faith that saves also produces obedience to God's Word, but not perfection. (I John 5:3). Saving faith will always manifest good works (Eph. 2:10).We don't become perfect but we do experience a noticeable change that continues working through our life.

Are the 10 able to give one all the instruction man needs to follow God? Sabbatarian's think so. Leo Schreven said if society followed the 10 C it would solve all the problems. "If we followed the 10 commandments we would have safe streets, children would honor their parents, adultery would no more happen, we would have secure marriages and happy homes. We found out folks that if we keep these commandments our society would improve over night to perfect." (CHRIST EXPOSES THE ANTICHRISTS GREATEST DECEPTION AFFECTING YOU #10 In Hawaii LEO SCHREVEN)

While I agree with him that many things would change, its not the cure all that he makes it out to be. His cure is the very opposite of what the bible says the cure is and what the law is for. Rom. 5:20 "Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. Rom.4:15 because the law brings about wrath . Rom.3:20 "for through the Law {comes} the knowledge of sin." The law did not stop sin but only pointed it out, it increased it. Knowing Christ is the cure, not the law.

Is the law the motivation to live a holy life? it demands it, but has no power to deliver it , it does the opposite 1 Cor.15:56 says," the law is the strength of sin."

Heb 7:19: "For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God."

Believers sin, but we are not sinners. We have a positional change as well as a nature change. Is Christ therefore a minister of sin? No he administrates holiness by his Spirit. When we yield to his Lordship we are fulfilling his commands.

We are no longer relating to God in a legal relationship but in a loving relationship. Our position changes From law to grace.

When a legalist (Nomiast) gets pinned down by sin he is enormously antagonistic because his identity is found in how well he is obeying the rules. This is not a problem for one who operates by our position from grace, not by performance. While we mourn over sin, it does not have the affect it would with a legalist.

Is the law the motivation to live a holy life.1 Cor.15:56 says the law is the strength of sin. Sin is producing death in me (its strength is the law) its a present tense verb. Believers sin but we are not sinners. Using the law is self defeating it only shows you your sin. Its like trying to wash your face with a mirror. The only way you get victory over the sin is not by concentrating on the sin or obeying the law, its by an overall relationship with Christ and applying his death and resurrection power. By focusing on him , following him, yielding to him we have power over sin. When you walk in the Spirit you won't fulfill the desires of the flesh. This is Gods solution.

The Spirit and the Letter

2 Cor. 3:7-8 If you have the Holy Spirit you don't need to live under the letter of the Law anymore, because it now is a relationship. In the old covenant for certain reasons only kings, high priests and prophets had the Holy Spirit but Israel was still under the law as a nation. In the new Covenant the Spirit is given to all who believe. If you had a marriage with all rules such as, you do this and I will do that, you reduce your marriage to conditions when it should be based on love and knowing the person. If you love your wife you'll know what to do and not do, if you act out of love you will do what is right and fulfill the law of God. That's operating from the new Covenant its unconditional.

Our motivation is not fear of not keeping the law right, but that we already are reconciled and have love with faith and we walk in it.

If your driving through and the light turns yellow and then red you broke the law. If you don't turn yourself in you broke Gods law because he tells us to obey the laws of the land. Leo Schreven is a law breaker by his own admittance. One night he told a story of how he was stopped speeding several times in different states at different times never getting a ticket. (only to remember he led someone to Christ previously and it was a policeman.) Finally after I think the 3rd time he asked the policeman who stopped him why he is not getting a ticket ? The Policeman told him that when he looks on the computer he sees him as one of them! He said nothing to correct him and drove off, obviously counting his blessings. How many laws of God were broken here ? Certainly being a false witness, intentional deception when one withholds the truth, also the N T. command to obey the ruling authorities. I'm not necessarily wanting to make huge example out of this except this was taught to 800 people in attendance.

If one is a true law keeper this would mean to obey not only Gods laws but mans. The next time you illegally park or go through a stop sign or red light by mistake turn yourself in. This is what the law demands (Rom.13:1-7 tells us to submit to the governmental authorities they are now the ones who implement the law and punishments since we are not a theocracy.)

"The Ten Commandments require no life of prayer, no Christian service, no evangelism, no missionary effort, no gospel preaching, no life and walk in the Spirit, no Fatherhood of God, no union with Christ, no fellowship of saints, no hope of salvation, and no hope of heaven. If it is asserted that we have all these because we have both the law and grace, it is replied that the law adds nothing to grace but confusion and contradiction, and that there is the most faithful warning in the Scriptures against this admixture. A few times the teachings of the law are referred to by the writers of the Epistles by way of illustration. Having stated the obligation under grace, they cite the fact that this same principle obtained under the law. There is, however, no basis here for a commingling of these two governing systems. The law of Moses presents a covenant of works to be wrought in the energy of the flesh; the teachings of grace present a covenant of faith to be wrought in the energy of the Spirit." (Lewis S. Chafer, Systematic Theology Vol. 4, pg.211)

Heb. 7:19: "For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God." Heb. 10:1: "For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect."

5048 teleioo (tel-i-o'-o);from 5046; to complete, i.e. (literally) accomplish, or (figuratively) consummate (in character): KJV-- consecrate, finish, fulfil, make) perfect.5048 teleioo-1) to make perfect, to complete; to carry through completely, to accomplish, to finish, to bring to an end 2) to complete (perfect) a) to add what is yet wanting in order to render a thing full b) to be found perfect 3) to bring to the end (goal) proposed 4) to accomplish; to bring to a close or fulfilment by event; used of the prophecies of the Scriptures.

The law was weak and was never intended to complete the task for humanity. "Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers ... which they broke." Jer. 31:31-32 Jeremiah (32: 40) declares that this "new covenant" will be an "everlasting one." This New Covenant is the one that was mediated by the blood of Jesus. The writer of the Hebrew letter affirms that it cancelled the former covenant (Hebrews 8:1-13 and 9:15-16) and that it replaces it as eternal in nature (Heb.13:20).

Paul makes clear in 2 Cor. 3:6-9. In that passage Paul states that we are "servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." This is why law keepers condemn others who live under this new Covenant because they are living under the wrong covenant. Paul in v.7 states "the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones" Here he calls the 10 commandments a ministry to condemn make us guilty, they are not about life.

However he writes in Rom. 8:1-4: "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." How can there be no condemnation if it is the law that condemns. The only way this could be is if he believer is not under the law. We are set free from the law of sin and death ( which are the OT commandments) when we live by the Spirit of God.

Just as were are not to have sin have authority over us and be dead to its influence, Paul says the very same thing OF THE LAW. Rom 7:4: "Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another-- to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God." If we are to be dead to sin we have to be dead to the law because we are told the law gives life to sin.

1 Cor. 15:56-57 "the strength of sin is the law." Paul's solution is not keeping the law but v. 57 "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Rom 8:13: "For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live."

Paul gives us the same solution in Gal.5:16-25, Paul writes us if we walk in the spirit we won't sin. there is our power for an overcoming life. V.18 we are not under the law vs.24 we crucify the flesh, as the apostle Paul said he dies daily. This is God's solution under the new covenant. Keeping the law was his commands to keep under the old covenant to bring one to God as their savior from sin. Obeying the Spirits directives is his command in the New Covenant. By walking in the Spirit which is a habitual behavior trains one for a new manner of life, it diminishes the carnal desires that make one sin. We will not walk contrary to the law but will fulfill its requirements not by concentrating on the law but on Christ.

Vs.18 Not under the law, he gave himself in the new covenant instead of rules. The law does not correct behavior it only shows our behavior, it is the spirit that has the power for the new life.

"(against those graces which constitute the fruit of the Spirit "there is no law," ; "the ostensible aim of the law is to restrain the evil tendencies natural to man in his fallen estate, yet in experience law finds itself not merely ineffective, it actually provokes those tendencies to greater activity. The intention of the gift of the Spirit is to constrain the believer to a life in which the natural tendencies shall have no place, and to produce in him their direct contraries. Law, therefore, has nothing to say against the fruit of the Spirit; hence the believer is not only not under law, , the law finds no scope in his life, inasmuch as, and in so far as, he is led by the Spirit;' From Notes on Galatians, by Hogg and Vine p. 298.(from Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words)

Rom. 6:17-18: "But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness." We don't become set free or serve a new master by obeying any law, but by having a new position which is in Christ, apart from the law but by His grace.